Below is the final showing for group forms of my work entitled “I’ve Gathered Among Us”. The piece will continue to tackle my choreographic tendencies as well as the manners in which I design a process.

A main concern that arose in class was around the term, assumption. What are the assumptions that we make as a choreographer? I think the assumptions we choose (or unconciously choose) play a heavy part in how the viewer experiences the work. Also, there is also the point of the view of the viewer, and the assumptions that he/she chooses (or unconciously chooses) to bring into the experience. John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” tries to give insight in ways to experience art from another viewpoint/perspective.

In class, we worked on veiwing structures from a different lens by trying to minimize our assumptions as viewers. For the course I generated a structure where the viewer was standing close and above the performers. That spatial tension generated a new experience in how a dance could perceived. That tension is something that I’m continually interested in as a choreographer.

During class, we discussed Tere O’Connor and Headlong Dance Theater’s idea of choreographic intuition in relation to objectivity. As a result, a discussion about the good/bad paradigm erupted for myself. The material in which a choreographer generates and locates as “bad” can be indentifiable as “good” if presented through a different lens. By lens I’m meaning the manners in which choreographers manipulate material (spatial changes for example).

Within this class I became interested in the amount of time it takes for a choreographer to look at their work objectively. There has to be a moment within a process where that shift occurs and I’m curious that if the choreographer changes that point within their process, how would that effect there perspective on what is “good” and what is “bad”

I’ve always struggled generating phrases. When attempting to generate a phrase, I find myself trying to locate meaning to every movement that occurs. To combat this tendency, I began to question my understanding of “meaning” in a dance work. A movement can be meaningful and have importance without it being directly correlated to a theme/idea/concept. I also believe that an investigation of your concept through physicality must occur. This may not be the case for every process, but the sake of this piece I wanted to go in that direction.

I began with the idea of groups and the many layers and tensions that arise when a group is being formed. That notion of tension I then began translating on a physical level – where in my body can I generate tension? This led me to investigate torque within the body – the tension of twisted body. I found it interesting the language I chose to use to aid in remembering the phrase. Below is an excerpt: